JUST JESUS
JUST JESUS The Greatest Things Ever Said About the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived
REVISED & EXPANDED
Compiled & Edited by
DANIEL WHYTE III
__________________________________ Just Jesus! The Greatest Things Ever Said About the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived Revised Edition Cover Design by Bill Hopper of Hopper Graphics Š Copyright 2004-2011 TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS: DALLAS, TEXAS; ATLANTA, GEORGIA; BROOKLYN, NEW YORK First Printing, 2004 Second Printing, 2007 Third Printing, 2011 The Bible quotations in this volume are from the King James Version of the Bible. The name TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS and its logo are registered as a trademark in the U.S. patent office. ISBN-10: 0-9849441-9-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-9849441-9-4 Printed in the USA.
DISCLAIMER Simply because we included a particular quote does not mean we condone the lifestyle or the philosophy of the person who said it. The position that we took was to include any quote that gave glory to Jesus Christ no matter who or where it came from. Therefore, it would be unnecessary to write us concerning the lifestyle or philosophy of one of the contributors. This book is not about them. It is about Him—Jesus Christ.
To my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to the gentlemen who introduced me to Him over thirty years ago: Pastor Charles McKinney and Bro. Michael Lewis
CONTENTS
N Introduction......................................................17 1. Who is Jesus?....................................................................27 2. Jesus' Effect on the World...............................................47 3. Christ and the Common Man.......................................59 4. Christ and Christianity.....................................................99 5. Christ and Christmas......................................................139 6. Christ and the Modern Era............................................145 7. Jesus: The Perfect Life; the Greatest Love.................159 8. Jesus: In His Own Words..............................................189
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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I thank the Lord for saving my soul, and for placing within my heart a desire to give Him praise and honour in this way. I want to thank my wife, Meriqua, for assisting in the research for this book and for proofreading and editing the manuscript. I also wish to thank: my daughter, Daniella (Danni), and my son, Daniel IV for assisting with research, doing the typesetting, designing the pages, and for helping in the proofreading process as well; my middle daughters: Danita, Danae`, and Daniqua for assisting with research; and my little ones: Danyel Ezekiel and Danyelle Elizabeth for being good and quiet while we worked on this project. A special thank you goes to Bro. Bill Hopper of Hopper Graphics of Texas for designing the beautiful cover and for being an encouragement. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
“At the end of the day only one thing matters, and that’s Jesus, Just Jesus, and nothing else.”
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THIS REVISED & EXPANDED EDITION
N Dear Reader, We are pleased to bring you the revised and expanded edition of Just Jesus: The Greatest Things Ever Said About the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived. This short note is to inform you of an important addition in this new edition of the book. In this edition, we made a special effort to include quotes about Jesus Christ from people who have lived in the past one hundred years, and thus may be more familiar to the reader. Over one hundred new
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quotation entries have been included in this revised edition of the book. You will find that many of these quotes are highlighted throughout the book. These quotes are from luminaries in the literary, entertainment, music, sports, religious, business, and political arenas. We hope that the inclusion of these quotes would make the book easier for you to relate to and more enjoyable to you as you read it. Remember, it’s all about Him! Daniel Whyte III Editor
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INTRODUCTION
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“At the end of the day only one thing matters, and that’s Jesus, Just Jesus, and nothing else.” It is for sure that the main thing that matters in life, is whether or not one has a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. To borrow biblical terminology, what really matters is: “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?” This I know, anyone who has met this Man along the tragic road of life, and has received Him as their personal Saviour has never been the same. Not only do I know this from observing the lives of others
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who have believed on Jesus Christ, but I know this from personal experience as well. On December 19, 1979, I had the priviledge and joy of meeting the Man named Jesus Christ in my Air Force dorm room at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. My wretched life was immediately and dramatically changed overnight. At the risk of sounding trite, I have never been the same. I have compiled this book for two reasons: (1) To show my appreciation for what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me and to give Him glory and honour through the printed page; (2) To challenge the gross commercialization that surrounds the “celebration” of His birthday during the Christmas season. My humble hope is that, at least, some Christians would be reminded that it is not about them, and it’s not even about others; it’s all about Him. I also recognize that this book cannot be limited to a holiday. Indeed, it is a book for all times, because He is a Man for all times. This book is all about Jesus Christ. It is a collection of some of the most eloquent and memorable statements about the One
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Who died for the sins of the world. These statements were made at different times over the past 2000 years, and by many different people at many different places—but they all give praise to Jesus Christ. Now, let me briefly say a word about quotations or memorable statements. When God made each of us, He wired us differently. For example, there are some people who are moved more by music as opposed to just words. On the other hand, there are some people who are moved more by simply reading and hearing the words without music. Both are equally moved, motivated, or encouraged. I happen to be of the latter family, so to speak. I am not big on music. I can live without music, but I cannot live without words, particularly the Word of God. I am a word person. Therefore, words move me just as much as music moves music people. By God’s grace, I can hear the rhythm, cadence, and intervals in a written paragraph as one would hear the same in a music piece. Outside of the Bible itself, probably nothing moves me like a “truth well said,” and that is a quotation
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or an eloquent statement. Please notice with me what the author Ray Bard said about the power of words: You study pivotal people and events in history, searching for a common denominator. You hope to identify the recurrent elements of greatness, the keys to phenomenal success. You search for the secret of miracles. After several hundred hours of reading, you reach an utterly inescapable conclusion: words are the most powerful force there has ever been. Monumental events explode with energetic words, and great leaders are remembered for the things they say. Although a grand idea may carry the seeds of change, it takes powerful words to launch the idea skyward, words strong enough to carry the full weight of vision. You have seen Rodin’s famous sculpture The Thinker, and were intrigued the moment you saw it. But how your interest increases when you hear Rodin speak of it! “What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with
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the brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils, and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs; with his clenched fist and gripping toes.” Seeing it now with our ears, we find Rodin’s Thinker far more interesting than when we saw it only with our eyes. Words are electric; they should be chosen for the emotional voltage they carry. Weak and predictable words cause grand ideas to appear so dull that they fade into the darkness of oblivion. But powerful words in unusual combinations brightly illuminate the mind. (Emphasis by the editor.) Yes, words are electric. If a sentence does not shock a little, it carries no emotional voltage. When the hearer is not jolted, you can be sure he is not moved. Remember the words of Napoleon: “Small plans do not inflame the hearts of men.” Words start wars and end them, create love and
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choke it, bring us to laughter and joy and tears. Words cause men and women willingly to risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Our world, as we know it, revolves on the power of words. Use words that are majestic, words that have the power to inflame people’s hearts and illuminate their minds. I cannot imagine anyone expounding upon the importance and power of words better than Ray Bard just did. Can you? Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the “prince of preachers,” said: “If you never quote others, you’ll never be quoted.” When I first heard or read that famous quote by C.H. Spurgeon many years ago, I rejected it because it seemed to suggest that one could actually learn how to be quotable no matter how uninspired one might be. However, now I can appreciate what Charles Spurgeon said. Here is, at least, one thing
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that Spurgeon might have meant by that statement: if you do not take the time to read quotes, understand quotes, and use quotes in your preaching, teaching, and speaking, etc., you will never learn how to put an inspired thought in enough eloquent words that it would be memorable or quotable. What makes a great statement? What makes a statement memorable or quotable? Here is my definition of a quotable statement. A memorable or quotable statement is simply a profound truth succintly written or spoken in words that are easily remembered and that provoke people to think or to do. This was how we chose the quotes in this book about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As I said earlier, this book is compiled primarily to bring glory, honour, and praise to Jesus Christ. However, we see how this book can benefit the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, such as: pastors, evangelists, missionaries, Bible teachers, and other Christian speakers as well, when they are preparing a sermon, speech, or lesson. For nothing can prime the pump of a sermon or a Christian speech like a powerful quote from yesteryear.
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Also, to my utter amazement, as I began to do the research on this book at the largest seminary in the world—Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, the librarians and I could not find one book that had nothing but quotations about Jesus Christ. By the way, I frankly think it is disrespectful to include Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, in any book, as just another subject among a bunch of other subjects and regular people of history. But that is just me. I apologize, but I had to get that off my chest. Hopefully, this book will fill that void in libraries across America, and around the globe. As I close this introductory section of this book, let me say that if you have truly been born again, by the grace of God, through accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, then your heart will almost burst with joy and praise as you read what some of the most important people of the past and present, most saved, some even lost, have said about the most important Person Who ever lived. I believe that your spirit will soar to higher heights in praise of the One Who died for us as you read these eloquent
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and powerful quotations. The mighty words contained in this book are about the greatest figure Who ever graced the earth—yet our Saviour and Friend, Jesus Christ—Just Jesus! —Daniel Whyte III Irving, Texas
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WHO IS JESUS?
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Jesus Christ himself asked the question, “Who do men say that I am?” In this section, are some of those answers. The dying Jesus is the evidence of God’s anger toward sin; but the living Jesus is the proof of God’s love and forgiveness. —Lorenz Eifert The Christian faith is firmly rooted in the incarnation, in the conviction that, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” To believe in Christ is to believe that God has come to earth to dwell with men...In Jesus, we meet the living
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God. Jesus is more than a religious genius or a holy man or a spiritual pioneer. To believe in Christ is to believe that the living God has come. —Earle W. Crawford Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair. —Blaise Pascal
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The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ. —Oswald Chambers A Scottish Protestant minister
I know men, and I tell you that Jesus is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions, that resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions, the distance of infinity. —Napoleon Bonaparte
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Jesus is the most perfect of all men that have yet appeared. —Ralph Waldo Emerson His parentage was obscure; His condition poor; His education null; His natural endowments great; His life correct and innocent; He was meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, and of the sublimest eloquence. —Thomas Jefferson Today the greatest single deterrent to knowledge of Jesus is His familiarity. Because we think we know Him, we pass Him by. —Winifred Kirkland Jesus was the greatest religious genius that ever lived. His beauty is eternal, and His reign shall never end. Jesus is in every respect unique, and nothing can be compared with Him. —Joseph Ernest Renan
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Two thousand years ago there was One here on this earth Who lived the grandest life that ever has been lived yet—a life that every thinking man, with deeper or shallower meaning, has agreed to call divine. —Frederick William Robertson You should point to the whole man Jesus and say, “That is God.” —Martin Luther The name of Jesus is as ointment poured forth. It nourishes, and illumines, and stills the anguish of the soul. —Angelus Silesius What the sun is to the flower, so Jesus is to me. —Tennyson When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking about Christ. When we speak about virtue, we are speaking about Christ. When we speak about peace, we are speaking about Christ. When we speak about truth and life and redemption, we are speaking about Christ. —Ambrose
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I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. —C.S. Lewis British writer, professor and Christian apologist
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It is a very good thing that you read the Bible... The Bible is Christ, for the Old Testament leads up to this culminating point...Christ alone —Vincent van Gogh The tomb of Jesus is empty. Jesus himself is still alive and can be encountered today. This belief is right at the heart of the Christian faith and it’s why the Bible and Christians talk about “Jesus is...” rather than “Jesus was...” —Selected Death may be the King of terrors...but Jesus is the King of Kings! —Dwight L. Moody The purpose of “I Am the Way” is to help people solve their problems. Unlike modern operas, “I Am the Way” is based on music that resolves, because Jesus is the Resolver. Jesus is the solution to all our problems. —Jerome Hines
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The crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has ever seen. —John Austin Baker Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death. —Karl Barth Dost thou understand me, sinful soul? He wrestled with justice, that thou mightest have rest; He wept and mourned, that thou mightest laugh and rejoice; He was betrayed, that thou mightest go free; was apprehended, that thou mightest escape; He was condemned, that thou mightest be justified; and was killed, that thou mightest live; He wore a crown of thorns, that thou mightest wear a crown of glory; and was nailed to the cross, with His arms wide open, to show with what freeness all His merits shall be bestowed on the coming soul; and how heartily He will receive it into His bosom. —John Bunyan In many ways, Jesus was like a street person. He had no home and no net worth. Yet He has changed lives
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and the course of history more than any other man. Therefore I continued to study the Bible not to learn about a religion but to learn about Jesus Christ. Throughout the New Testament, Christ claims that He is God, not a prophet or a good moral teacher. No other man of credibility has ever made that claim. If, in fact He was God on earth, I had to deal with it. —Kevin Jenkins It was this same Jesus, the Christ who, among many other remarkable things, said and repeated something which, proceeding from any other being would have condemned him at once as either a bloated egotist or a dangerously unbalanced person...when He said He himself would rise again from the dead, the third day after He was crucified, He said something that only a fool would dare say, if he expected longer the devotion of any disciples—unless He was sure He was going to rise. No founder of any world religion known to men ever dared say a thing like that! —Wilbur Smith Jesus was perfect. He never sinned. He came to this earth to die for us all. By suffering and dying on the
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cross, He took the sins of the world on Himself. —Sonny Arguinzoni In the best sense of the word, Jesus was a radical... His religion has been so long identified with conservatism—often with conservatism of the obstinate and unyielding sort—that it is almost startling for us sometimes to remember that all of the conservatism of His own times was against Him; that it was the young, free, restless, sanguine, progressive part of the people who flocked to Him. —Phillips Brooks As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. —Kenneth Scott Latourette
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Christ is the greatest philosopher: He changed my heart. —George W. Bush 43rd U.S. President
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He was born in a stable, in an obscure village, the Child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter’s shop until He was thirty. From there He travelled less than two hundred miles. He never wrote a book. He never held office. He never had a family or owned a home. He did none of the things one associates with greatness. He became a nomadic preacher. He was only thirty-three when the tide of popular opinion turned against him. He was betrayed by a close friend, and his other friends ran away. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was unjustly condemned to death, crucified on a cross between two thieves, on a hill overlooking the town dump. And when dead, was laid in a borrowed grave, through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned have not affected the life of man on this earth as that One Solitary Life. —James C. Hefley Jesus Christ is God’s everything for man’s total need. —Richard Halverson
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Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He played beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause. —M.B.E.
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Jesus Christ was an extremist for love, truth and goodness. —Martin Luther King Jr. Baptist preacher and Civil Rights leader
He is the central figure of the human race. He is the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. —Phillips Brooks
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If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could he help us? If He is not true man, how could He help us? —Dietrich Bonhoeffer German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and martyr
Who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish race? —Benjamin Disraeli
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Jesus is the only ticket to heaven. —Lon Solomon American pastor
Commander-in-chief of the Celestial Army, King of Zion, Eternal Emperor, Pontifex Maximus of the Christian Church, Archbishop of all Souls, Elector of Truth, Archduke of Glory, Duke of Life, Prince of Peace, Defender of the Gates of Hell, Conqueror of Death, Hereditary Lord of all Nations, Lord of Justice, and Head of the Sacred Council of the Heavenly Father—Jesus. —Anonymous If the print of the seal on the wax is the express image of the seal itself, so Christ is the express image—the perfect representation of God. —St. Ambrose Jesus Christ is the outstanding personality of all time...No other teacher—Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Mohammedan—is still teacher whose teaching is
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such a guidepost for the world we live in. Other teachers may have something basic for an Oriental, an Arab, or an Occidental; but every act and word of Jesus has value for all of us. He became the Light of the World. Why shouldn’t I, a Jew, be proud of that? —Sholem Asch Christ is the great hidden mystery, the blessed goal, the purpose for which everything was created. —St. Maximus the Confessor Now the Scriptures would not have testified these things of Him, if, like others, He had been a mere man. —Saint Irenaeus Although Christ was God, he took flesh; and having been made man, he remained what he was, God. —Origen The person of Christ is to me the greatest and surest of all facts. —Philip Schaff
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Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again. —George Whitefield
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Jesus knows our world. He does not disdain us like the God of Aristotle. We can speak to Him and He answers us. Although He is a person like ourselves, He is God and transcends all things. —Alexis Carrel Nobel prize-winning surgeon and biologist
It is not only impossible, but also useless to recognize God without Jesus. —Blaise Pascal There was no identity crisis in the life of Jesus Christ. He knew who He was. He knew where He had come from, and why He was here. And He knew where He was going. And when you are that liberated, then you can serve. —Howard Hendricks
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Jesus Christ: The meeting place of eternity and time, the blending of deity and humanity, the junction of heaven and earth. —Anonymous Jesus—an unsurpassed master of the art of laying bare the inmost core of spiritual truth. —Geza Vermes Take from the Bible the Godship of Christ, and it would be but a heap of dust. —Henry Ward Beecher As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw or is likely to see. —Benjamin Franklin The difference between Socrates and Jesus Christ? The great Conscious; the immeasurably great Unconscious. —Thomas Carlyle
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Socrates died like a philosopher; Jesus Christ died like a God. —Jean Jacques Rousseau
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In Jesus, God wills to be true God not only in the height but also in the depth—in the depth of human creatureliness, sinfulness and mortality. —Karl Barth Swiss Reformed theologian
It is as if God the Father is saying to us: “Since I have told you everything in My Word, Who is My Son, I have no other words that can at present say anything or reveal anything to you beyond this. Fix your eyes on Him alone, for in Him I have told you all, revealed all, and in Him you will find more than you desire or ask. If you fix your eyes on Him, you will find everything, for He is My whole word and My reply, He is My whole vision and My whole revelation. —Anthony M. Coniaris
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Have you ever seen one of those paintings of Jesus where He is depicted as a tall lean blond man lounging in a field in a white robe holding a bunch of lambs? Who paints those things? This is not the image of our God as depicted in His word. Jesus was a rough and burly man. Full of fire and passion. A warrior when it came to doing battle against those who offended the sacred things of the Father. Yet, in a moment, able to touch a young child with hands of gentleness. To us the warrior is just as critical as the gentle shepherd. By His holy passion for righteousness we are continually moved on to perfection. By His gentle love we are continually comforted in our lessons of life. Let us never lose sight of the God who is a fierce warrior. —from Daily Glory Devotions I believe there is no one deeper, lovelier, more sympathetic and more perfect than Jesus—not only is there no one else like him, there never could be anyone like him. —Fyodor Dostoevsky
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There Jesus is, in the temple again, causing trouble. Speaking very different from other preachers. Speaking with authority about sorrow, anxiety, sickness, and death. Penetrating the dark corners of human existence. Shattering illusion. —Martin Bell
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I have always been impressed by the fact that God is happy—and that this ineffable and continuous joy lived in the soul of Christ. Joy is for me a transport, a state of drunkenness in the 'maddest' sense of the term. —Olivier Messiaen French composer, organist and ornithologist
You cannot go outside of A and Z in the realm of literature; likewise Christ Jesus is First and Last of God’s new creation, and all that is in between; you cannot get outside of that. —T. Austin-Sparks
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Christ is in all His redeemed, as the soul of their soul, the life of their life. He is the pitying heart and the helping hand of God with every needy, praying spirit in the world. He is the sweet light of the knowledge of God that breaks in upon every penitent heart. He is not only with those who believe in Him and love Him, but also with those who neither believe in Him nor love Him, that He may be to them also Jesus their Saviour. The Christ of God is in thy heart, waiting and aiming to get the consent of thy will, that He may save thee. Wherever man is, there also is Christ, endeavoring to free him from the law of sin and death, by becoming Himself the law of the spirit of his life. —John Pulsford Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion. —Ernest Renan Nothing is more clear than that Christ cannot be
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explained by any humanistic system. He does not fit into any theory of natural evolution, for in that case the perfect flower of humanity should have appeared at the end of human history and not in the middle of it. —Loraine Boettner If ever the Divine appeared on earth, it was in the person of Christ. —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Christ is a jewel worth more than a thousand worlds, as all know who have Him. Get Him, and get all; miss Him and miss all. —Thomas Brooks
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JESUS’ EFFECT ON THE WORLD
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Jesus Christ’s influence stretches through time and beyond into eternity. Much of the turmoil and social debates in our society today are on account of His name. Undoubtedly, Jesus’ lasting effect on the world is unmatched by any other person in history...everywhere His name is praised and reviled, welcomed and hated...but no one can deny His impact. Jesus gave history a new beginning. In every land He is at home: everywhere men think His face is like their best face—and like God’s face. His birthday is kept across the world. His death-day has set a gallows against every city skyline. Who is He? —George A. Buttrick
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Despite our efforts to keep Him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: “a virgin’s womb and an empty tomb.” Jesus entered our world through a door marked, “No Entrance” and left through a door marked “No Exit.” —Peter Larson Jesus did not spend His time guarding the customs; He was sent to His death by the men who did. —Kenneth J. Foreman Never does human nature seem so courageous and so wicked all at once as when we stand before the cross of Jesus! The most enthusiastic hopes, the most profound humiliation, have found their inspiration there. —Phillips Brooks Jesus came, not to hush the natural music of men’s lives, nor to fill it with storm and agitation, but to retune every silver chord in that “harp of a thousand strings” and to make it echo with the harmonies of heaven. —Frederic W. Farrar
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When Jesus comes, the shadows depart. —Inscription on the Wall of a Castle in Scotland After reading the doctrines of Plato, Socrates or Aristotle, we feel the specific difference between their words and Christ’s is the difference between an inquiry and a revelation. —Joseph Parker An era in human history is the life of Jesus, and its immense influence for good leaves all the perversion and superstition that has accrued almost harmless. —Ralph Waldo Emerson The nature of Christ’s existence is mysterious, I admit; but this mystery meets the wants of man. Reject it, and the world is an explicable riddle; believe it, and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained. —Napoleon Bonaparte I am no more of a Christian than Pilate was, or you are, gentle hearer; and yet, like Pilate, I greatly prefer
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Jesus of Nazareth to Amos or Caiaphas; and I am ready to admit that I see no way out of the world’s misery but the way which would have been found by His will. —George Bernard Shaw As little humanity will ever be without religion, as little will it be without Christ. —David F. Strauss Christ is the key to the history of the world. Not only does all harmonize with the mission of Christ, but all is subordinate to it. —Selected Jesus astonishes and overpowers sensual people. They cannot unite Him to history or reconcile Him with themselves. —Ralph Waldo Emerson No one else holds or has held the place in the heart of the world which Jesus holds. Other gods have been as devoutly worshipped; no other man has been so devoutly loved. —John Knox
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I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him. —Napoleon Bonaparte
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Christ is the only answer to an insane world. They will not understand that the trouble with the western world civilization is not economics, but more—good and evil! They are thinking they can make things work by policies, inventions, but man will never live on this planet without God! —Malcolm Muggeridge English writer and media personality
It is not difficult to see one vital significance of Jesus Christ: He has given us the most glorious interpretation of life’s meaning that the sons of men
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have ever had. The fatherhood of God, the friendship of the Spirit, the sovereignty of righteousness, the law of love, the glory of service, the coming of the kingdom, the eternal hope—there never was an interpretation of life to compare with that. —Harry Emerson Fosdick We believe that the history of the world is but the history of His influence and that the center of the whole universe is the cross of Calvary. —Alexander Maclaren
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Jesus Christ’s claim of divinity is the most serious claim anyone ever made. Everything about Christianity hinges on His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. That’s what Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter are all about. —Luis Palau Christian evangelist
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Jesus means something to our world because a mighty spiritual force streams forth from him and flows through our being also. This fact can neither be shaken nor confirmed by any historical discovery. It is the solid foundation of Christianity. —Albert Schweitzer He is the greatest influence in the world today. There is...a fifth Gospel being written—the work of Jesus Christ in the hearts and lives of men and nations. —W.H. Griffith Thomas Without Jesus Christ man must be in vice and misery; with Jesus Christ man is free from vice and misery; in Him is all our virtue and all our happiness. Apart from Him there is but vice, misery, darkness, death, despair. —Blaise Pascal Not only are Christians writing about Jesus, but also Communists, Jews, atheists and agnostics are taking up their pens to paint a portrait of Jesus. —John Clayton
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I thank God for the honesty and virility of Jesus’ religion which makes us face the facts and calls us to take a man’s part in the real battle of life. —Henry Van Dyke American author, educator and clergyman
How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior,was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree had destroyed us; a tree now brought us life. —Theodore of Studios In Christ, troubles are turned into triumph, so in Him we look at what is coming as the times of the greatest triumphs the world has ever known! —Rick Joyner Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life
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and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, (John 17:3); and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him (Proverbs 2:3). —from the first Harvard University Student Handbook (For over 100 years, more than 50% of all Harvard graduates were pastors.)
Follow me: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Without the way there is no going; Without the truth there is no knowing; Without the life there is no living. —Thomas à Kempis Art is not necessary at all. All that is necessary to make this world a better place to live in is to love— to love as Christ loved. —Isadora Duncan But any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood, and
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this is what happened to Jesus. —H. L. Mencken American editor Who decides what is right and wrong in the world? Who has the authority to define morality for all of creation? It is not the courts, congress, the media, public opinion, the “politically correct” police, the “tolerance” brigade or even the church. The only answer has been, is and always will be Jesus Christ. You can find His opinion on a great variety of subjects in His best seller...The Bible. —Jeffrey E. Ramey
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The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was the main teaching of Jesus, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought. —H. G. Wells English writer
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As a name, Jesus is more grandly honoured and more grievously hated, more acclaimed and more accused than any other. We find it imprinted over six hundred times on the pages of the four Gospels, and it is the most charming, consoling, comforting name by which our beloved Saviour is known. —Charles J. Rolls They think to order all things wisely; but having rejected Christ they will end by drenching the world with blood. —Fyodor Dostoevsky After the fall of so many gods in this century, this person, broken at the hands of his opponents and constantly betrayed through the ages by his adherents, is obviously still for innumerable people the most moving figure in the long history of mankind. —Hans Kueng Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3. Yet the influence of Christ’s three-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching
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from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity. —Unknown
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I’ll just say, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I am trusting Christ’s death for me to take me to heaven. —Mickey Mantle American professional baseball player
Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection. —Watchman Nee Men need only trust in Christ’s teaching and obey it, and there will be peace on earth. —Leo Tolstoy
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CHRIST AND THE COMMON MAN
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Christ came to Earth for the benefit of humans...the ordinary and the outcast, the sick and the sinner, the last and the “least of these.” So, what was His effect on the lives of these men, women, and children? What has been the impact of Jesus’ life on the common man? In His life, Christ is an example, showing us how to live; in His death, He is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in His resurrection, a conqueror; in His ascension, a king; in His intercession, a high priest. —Martin Luther
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After six years given to the impartial investigation of Christianity, as to its truth or falsity, I have come to the deliberate conclusion that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of the Jews, the Saviour of the world, and my personal Saviour. —Lew Wallace If I must comprehend Jesus Christ, I could not believe on Him. He would be no greater than myself. Such is my consciousness of sin and inability that I must have a superhuman Saviour. —Daniel Webster
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Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is too much for our small hearts? —H.G. Wells English author
The holiest of men still need Christ as their Prophet, as “the light of the world.” For He does not give them light but from moment to moment; the instant He withdraws, all is darkness. They still need Christ
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as their King, for God does not give them a stock of holiness. But unless they receive a supply every moment, nothing but unholiness would remain. They still need Christ as their Priest, to make atonement for their holy things. Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ. —John Wesley Religion would save a man; Christ would make him worth saving. —Henry Ward Beecher
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Jesus, like any good fisherman, first catches the fish: then He cleans them. —Mark Potter British Court Judge
When Christ died on the cross of Calvary, He died with you and me in mind. —Tom Malone Never be afraid to bring the transcendent mysteries of our faith, Christ’s life and death and resurrection,
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to the help of the humblest and commonest of human wants. —Phillips Brooks
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We're not going to talk about the differences. We're going to focus on what's central, that Jesus is who He says He was... We have the same core beliefs. We find that's our strength. Not for baseball, but for life. —Chad Curtis baseball player
From my youth onwards I have found in Jesus my great brother. —Martin Buber God will answer all our questions in one way and one way only. Namely, by showing us more of His Son. —Watchman Nee
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Every thing that a man leans upon but God, will be a dart that will certainly pierce his heart through and through. He who leans only upon Christ, lives the highest, choicest, safest, and sweetest life. —Thomas Brooks By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade. —Desiderius Erasmus None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much. —Lydia M. Child I love and venerate the religion of Christ, because Christ came into the world to deliver humanity from slavery, for which God had not created it. —Giuseppe Garibald I had rather be in hell with Christ, then be in heaven without him. —Martin Luther
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The most wonderful thing I have learned since I gave my life to Christ is that this Christian stuff not only creates and inspires a power within and a passion for life, but this Christian stuff is also personal, alive and real... Being a Christian is about knowing a living and breathing God. —Michelle Akers soccer athlete
Man’s ultimate destiny depends not on whether he can learn new lessons or make new discoveries and conquests, but on his acceptance of the lesson taught him close upon two thousand years ago. —Inscription at the Eastern Entrance of Rockefeller Center, in New York City Without Christ, life is as the twilight with dark night ahead; with Christ, it is the dawn of morning with the light and warmth of full day ahead. —Philip Schaff If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet
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distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. —Robert M. McCheyne Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes. One alone is true to us; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our need. —John Henry Newman
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I came under conviction when I was in the third grade, and I talked with my mother. I told her, ‘I don’t understand this, but I need to talk to you.’ We talked, and she led me to Jesus. The following Sunday I made a public confirmation of my faith [in Jesus Christ]. In one sense, it was not terribly eventful for an eight-year-old, but it was the most important event in my life. —John Grisham Bestselling American writer
When Christ came into my life, I came about like a well-handled ship. —Robert Louis Stevenson
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The most pressing question on the problem of faith is whether a man as a civilized being...can believe in the divinity of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for therein rests the whole of our faith. —Fyodor Dostoevsky
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I never thought about Buddha becoming any real part [of my life] . . . Jesus is the only one I've ever been interested in. —Jack Kerouac Novelist
Jesus teaches us that joy and happiness depends on the kind of person you are. Happiness is in being somebody, not in just having things. If you will read Jesus’ sayings, you will find again and again that He says something like this: unless what you are is greater than anything you have, you have lost your life. “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” —J. Walter Malone
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To all here present I wish to testify, that the greatest thing in my life is to be a witness for Jesus. A person could easily believe that someone in my position should always be happy, but that is not the case. Being in possession of the very choicest of what this world has to offer, wouldn’t give an individual peace. The heart of man longs for something better! Immediately, after receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart, that restless longing for something more was gone. My desire and goal in life is to be a witness about His love in word and deed. And I wish to say to all who listen to these words, that it is a joy to serve Him, a great, great joy. —Prince Oskar Bernadotte of Sweden God speaks to me not through the thunder and the earthquake, nor through the ocean and the stars, but through the Son of Man, and speaks in a language adapted to my imperfect sight and hearing. —William Lyon Phelps Christ is clothed with human nature. —Benjamin Whichcote
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Most importantly, I thank my Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, for his unfailing grace and mercy in my life. You don’t know what He’s done for me— He gave me the victory! —Natalie Cole
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If you make a great deal of Christ, He will make a great deal of you. If you make but little of Him, He will make but little of you. —R. A. Torrey American evangelist, educator, and writer
History is crowded with men who would be God. But only One who would be man. —Anonymous I am of the opinion that we should endeavor with all possible zeal to obtain an exact understanding of the great personality of Jesus and to reclaim him for Judaism. —Moritz Lazarus
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How I wish that all people would read the Bible, worship and believe in the One and Only True God! The Bible which is God’s living, inspired and true Word teaches us about the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible also declares that we can attain righteousness by our faith in His Son Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself through His death on the cross, and shed His blood as an offering for sin. God’s righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ exalts a nation. That has been proven historically. Christ is freedom’s rock. His love covers a multitude of sins. Everyone who believes on Him shall receive eternal life! —Chiang Kai Shek My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour. —John Newton If Christ comes to rule in the hearts of men, it will be because we take Him with us on the tractor, behind the desk, when we’re making a sale to a customer, or when we’re driving on the road. —Alexander Nunn
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The bombs and missiles can change the leaders, but only Jesus Christ can change the people there. —Iraqi Evangelist
Everything that Jesus did while He was here, He did it for you. —Maze Jackson If Christianity were taught and understood conformable to the spirit of its Founder, the existing social organism could not exist a day. —Emile Louis Victor de Lavelaye I never begin my work in the morning without thinking that perhaps He may interrupt my work and begin His own. I am not looking for death. I am looking for Him. —G. Campbell Morgan The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances. —Robert Flatt
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I wasn't put on this Earth to play basketball, although I love to play and I love to compete. And it's a great avenue for me to experience special moments when I can help people. Two things are sacred to me— my family and my religion. I am never embarrassed by Jesus Christ. Without Him I wouldn't be in the position I am today. —Karl Malone basketball player
Once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Gospel which I had long laboured to destroy. —John Newton And thus I close with this that I will firmly adhere to Christ, and trust in Him, who is acquainted with all my needs, and can deliver me out of it. —Felix Mantz All we want in Christ, we shall find in Christ. If we
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want little, we shall find little. If we want much, we shall find much; but if, in utter helplessness, we cast our all on Christ, He will be to us the whole treasury of God. —Henry Benjamin Whipple Jesus Christ, the condescension of divinity, and the exaltation of humanity. —Phillips Brooks All that I am I owe to Jesus Christ, revealed to me in His divine Book. —David Livingstone Jesus cannot forget us; we have been graven on the palms of his hands. —Lois Picillo
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As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. —Albert Einstein Nobel prize-winning physicist
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Even yet Christ Jesus has to lie out in waste places very often, because there is no room for him in the inn—no room for him in our hearts, because of our worldliness. There is no room for him even in our politics and religion. There is no room in the inn, and we put him in the manger, and he lies outside our faith, coldly and dimly conceived by us. —E.H. Chapin Jesus Christ turns life right side up, and Heaven outside in. —Carl F.H. Henry People know the Lord Jesus as Savior, but we need to know Him as a Friend and Sanctifier, as an Advocate, as our coming King, as our constant Companion and Friend. —Tom Malone A man who can read the New Testament and not see that Christ claims to be more than a man, can look all over the sky at high noon on a cloudless day and not see the sun. —William E. Biederwolf
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More than anything, it's my relationship with Jesus Christ. I don't think anything is important in comparison to living for your Creator. Everything has to come from that foundation. Nothing really matters in the big picture other than what you do for the Lord. —Paul Westphal basketball coach
Jesus Christ and His precepts are found to hit the moral experience of mankind; to hit it in the critical points; to hit it lastingly; and when doubts are thrown upon their really hitting it, then to come out stronger than ever. —Matthew Arnold If ever man was God or God man, Jesus Christ was both. —Lord Byron Every character has an inward spring; let Christ be that spring. Every action has a keynote; let Christ be that note, to which your whole life is attuned. —Henry Drummond
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The unique impression of Jesus upon mankind, whose name is not so much written as ploughed into the history of the world, is proof of the subtle virtue of this infusion. Jesus belonged to the race of prophets. He saw with open eyes the mystery of the soul. One man was true to what is in you and me. He, as I think, is the only soul in history who has appreciated the worth of man. —Ralph Waldo Emerson My advice to you is, take a house next door to the Physician, for it will be very singular if you should prove to be the very first He ever turned away unhealed. —Samuel Rutherford The most excellent study of expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. —James Innell Packer Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; we do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ. —Blaise Pascal
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Since He looked upon me my heart is not my own. He hath run away to heaven with it. —Samuel Rutherford Don't be fearful about the journey ahead; don't worry about where you are going or how you are going to get there. If you believe in the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, also believe in the second person of the Trinity, the one who came as the Light of the World, not only to die for people, but to light the way... This one, Jesus Christ, is himself the Light and will guide your footsteps along the way. —Edith Schaeffer So close was Christ’s connection with God that he equated a man’s attitude to himself with the man’s attitude to God. —John Stott
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The Lord has guided me, and without my Saviour, I am nothing.
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—George Washington Carver scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor
The whole Christ seeks after each sinner, and when the Lord finds it, he gives himself to that one soul as if he had but that one soul to bless. How my heart admires the concentration of all the Godhead and humanity of Christ in his search after each sheep of his flock. —C.H. Spurgeon Christ did not love humanity. He never said that He loved humanity. He loved men. —G.K. Chesterton Jesus, the very thought of Thee with sweetness fills the breast. —Edward Caswall If you live for any joy on earth, you may be forsaken; but, oh, live for Jesus, and He will never forsake you! —Matthew Simpson Jesus Christ came into my prison cell last night, and every stone flashed like a ruby. —Samuel Rutherford
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Jesus Christ is the Completer of unfinished people with unfinished work in unfinished times. —Lona Fowler If God never became flesh, he could neither redeem us nor reveal to us his promise of eternal life. It is only by becoming like us that God can make us like him, restoring us in his image. —St. Irenaeus Where human life needs most sympathy, where usually it is the most barren, there it is that Christ is more likely to be found than anywhere else. —Henry Ward Beecher Humans need Jesus Christ as a necessity and not as a luxury. You may be pleased to have flowers, but you must have bread.... Jesus is not a phenomenon, He is bread: Christ is not a curiosity, He is water. As surely as we cannot live without bread, we cannot live truly without Christ: If we know not Christ we are not living, our movement is a mechanical flutter, our pulse is but the stirring of an animal life. —Joseph Parker
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I think everybody realizes there is a Lord Jesus Christ. Whether they're committed to Him or not, it's gonna be important to them before they die to make that decision. We're talking eternal life—we're talking forever. —Randy Johnson baseball player
The Lord has turned all our sunsets into sunrise. —Clement of Alexandria
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The greatest hero that exists today without a doubt is Jesus Christ...The one story that's most exciting to us and to Him is that story when He defeats evil. —Ted Dekker Bestselling author
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Christ has not only spoken to us by his life but has also spoken for us by his death. —Soren Kierkegaard All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning. —Oswald Chambers
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Those without faith experience a longing and an emptiness that this earth cannot fill. I see evidence of that spiritual hunger almost every day in my job as Governor. Without my personal acceptance of Jesus Christ, I could not keep going. —George V. Voinovich former senator and governor of Ohio
You may never know that JESUS is all you need, until JESUS is all you have. —Corrie Ten Boom
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Without faith, we are nothing, and without God in my life, personally I am nothing...Jesus was the greatest example that [God] gave us. Having faith in him and what he did for us is awesome. —Colt McCoy American football player
The good news is that in the face of Jesus Christ we see the very face of God, the One who has decided to be with us and for us in spite of our sin. —Kevin VanHoozer
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The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ. —Oswald Chambers A Scottish Protestant minister
Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man towards the unseen that it has become insensible to the barriers of time and space. —Napoleon Bonaparte
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God is everywhere. His truth and his love pervade all things as the light and the heat of the sun pervade our atmosphere. But...God does not touch our souls with the fire of supernatural knowledge and experience without Christ. —Thomas Merton I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt. —Sir Lionel Luckhoo Trial lawyer
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I want kids to understand that strength doesn't come from what goes on around you. It comes from inside you, and that comes from Jesus Christ. —Willie Aames American actor, film and television director, television producer, and screenwriter
The risen life of Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian.
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Our daily experience ought to be that there comes, wavelet by wavelet, that silent, gentle, and yet omnipotent influx into our empty hearts, this very life of Christ Himself. —Alexander MacLaren He became like us that He might make us like Him. —Alan Redpath
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The greatest need in the world is the transformation of human nature. We need a new heart that will not have lust and greed and hate in it. We need a heart filled with love and peace and joy, and that is why Jesus came into the world. —Billy Graham Christian evangelist
Jesus came for the least, the lost, and the last. —Marilyn Hickey Jesus feels for thee; Jesus consoles thee; Jesus will help thee. No monarch in his impregnable fortress
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is more secure than the cony in his rocky burrow. The Master of ten thousand chariots is not one whit better protected than the little dweller in the mountain’s cleft. In Jesus the weak are strong, and the defenceless safe; they could not be more strong if they were giants, or more safe if they were in heaven. Faith gives to men on earth the protection of the God of heaven. More they cannot need, and need not wish. The conies cannot build a castle, but they avail themselves of what is there already: I cannot make myself a refuge, but Jesus has provided it, His Father has given it, His Spirit has revealed it, and lo, again tonight I enter it, and am safe from every foe. —Charles Haddon Spurgeon I started to discover Jesus Christ, his life and teachings. I'm still learning about the liturgy, and there's no doubt that as I read I struggle both with aspects of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and with the actions, past and present, of the organised church. What I know, though, is that none of that matters too much. The core of my
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Christianity is a belief in the wisdom of Jesus's words as told in the Gospels. —Derek Draper When all other doors in life are closed to us, Jesus will be for us the ever open door. If we really believe this then no situation in life will ever be hopeless. For to call any situation hopeless is to shut the door on God. —Anthony M. Coniaris
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Irrespective and irregardless to whatever [Evander Holyfield's] skills and talent are in the boxing ring, his heart is right with God, and that's what's first and foremost. I have come this far by faith, trusting in [God's] holy Word, leaning on Him, and He's never failed me yet. How does our success come about? Just look up and ask for Jesus Christ, the matchless Lamb, the Prince of Peace... and you will find the answer. —Don King American boxing promoter
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I entered the game wearing a 'Jesus Is the Reason' wristband as a reminder to focus on Jesus Christ and let my God-given playing abilities take over. I don't have to worry about filling anyone's shoes, because I play for Jesus Christ. I have no fear of losing or of failure because Jesus Christ has already won the greatest victory for me on the cross. —Cameron Dollar American mixed martial artist
I believe that Jesus Christ is truly God, born of the Father in eternity and also truly man, born of the Virgin Mary. He is my Lord! He redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, bought and won me from all sins, death and the authority of the Devil. It did not cost Him gold or silver, but His holy, precious blood, His innocent body — His death! Because of this, I am His very own, will live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him righteously, innocently and blessedly forever, just as He is risen from death, lives and reigns forever. —Martin Luther
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For thirty five years of my life I was, in the proper acceptation of the word, nihilist, a man who believed in nothing. Five years ago my faith came to me. I believed in the doctrine of Jesus Christ and my whole life underwent a sudden transformation. Life and death ceased to be evil. Instead of despair, I tasted joy and happiness that death could not take away. —Leo Tolstoy The holy one…The divine man…The human mind, no matter how far it may advance in every other department, will never transcend the height and moral culture of Christianity as it shines and glows in the gospels. —Goethe Jesus took my place on the cross to give me a place in heaven. —Unknown
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We should allow Christ to influence every word we speak and every action we take.
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I believe glorifying God in this way in the business world will bless everyone involved. —J.L. Jackson Businessman I pray and meditate every single day, every morning. You know, I pray in cabs. I pray in airplanes. I don’t really ask for anything—I just pray that Jesus will give me the strength to follow Him. That’s all I pray for. And that I will always turn my will and my life over to His care. —Lawrence Kudlow American economist, TV personality, and newspaper columnist
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First of all, you have to meet God with light! I do not believe that any man can solve the problems of life without Jesus Christ. —Billy Graham Christian evangelist
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My worldly faculties are slipping away day by day Happy it is for all of us that the true good does not lie in them. As they ebb, may they leave us as little children, trusting in the Father of Mercies and accepting His unspeakable gift. I bow before Him who is Lord of all. —Michael Faraday
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Jesus was never against politics. He just wants us to recognize that there is a greater power above. We must all recognize there is a King of kings and a Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, who is above every political system. —Frederick Chiluba President of Zambia
Men point to the sad incidents of human life on earth, and they ask “Where is the love of God?” God points to that Cross as the unreserved manifestation of love so inconceivably infinite as to
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answer every challenge and silence all doubt for ever. And that Cross is not merely the public proof of what God has accomplished; it is the earnest of all that He has promised. —Sir Robert Anderson Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed…The greatest among the sons of men. His suffering will melt the noblest hearts and bring forth tears from innumerable eyes. —Ernest Renan
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Some people think that if you believe in God, there's going to be a miracle every day. You cannot do that. You have to go out there and talk to yourself, talk to God; because every time you talk to God for real, you're going to find that He means every word. He never gave up. He never walked out on you and He's there for you. You just have to say: "Jesus, help me out please," and He'll be there for you. —Sammy Sosa Major League Baseball player
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God may thunder His commands from Mount Sinai and men may fear, yet remain at heart exactly as they were before. But let a man once see his God down in the arena as a Man—suffering, tempted, sweating, and agonized, finally dying a criminal’s death—and he is a hard man indeed who is untouched. —J.B. Phillips
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When I say God, I mean Jesus Christ. Not for the sake of anyone's orthodoxy—far from it. Because in all my seventy-three years, I have found no more comprehensive, usable meaning. For much of my young life, I searched intellectually for what I felt secure in calling my concept of God. And then, through the life of a friend, almost by divine accident, I saw that my way of searching had been all wrong. I was making it all complex when God had two thousand years ago, already made Himself plain in the person of Jesus Christ... —Eugenia Price Writer
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I know that it's only because of Him that I'm successful. I only want to give Him all the glory and all the praise...Every step I take He's guiding me, watching over me and molding me. —Michelle Snow American professional women’s basketball player
In every man’s heart there is an emptiness that only God can fill with his son Jesus Christ. —Blaise Pascal
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Since I asked Christ to be my Lord and Savior, there are still some peaks and valleys. But I am being operated on by the greatest Doctor of them all, so the glory goes to Him. —Julius "Dr. J" Erving American basketball player
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The fateful night in November 1982 started just like any other. I watched TV, grumbled in my $300,000 house, and went to bed about midnight. But I could not sleep. All the sins of my youth kept parading through my mind. This had never happened to me before. I was up all night. I cried out to God, suddenly remembering the gist of the prayer offered at that [Campus Crusade for Christ] conference seventeen years earlier. I asked Jesus to come into my life. Nothing gave me the peace that Jesus gave me that night. I eventually got back into basketball. And when I finally got that ring with my name on it, do you know what Bible verse popped into my mind? "For what will a man be profited if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). —"Pistol" Pete Maravich American professional basketball player
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I was a Muslim at one time, and I remember knowing about Jesus, studying about Him with my friends and Athletes In Action. I attended things like that. I remember coming here to Green Bay and saying, "You know something? I know about Jesus. I've been doing it my own way for 22 years, and it brought me nothing but sadness. Let me do it His way"...Jesus loves me. He died for my sins. That's what makes me happy, not because of the success I'm having. He just happens to be using me. I'm grateful for that. I am honored that He wants to use me in that way. I just want to serve Him in any way. —Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila American football player It has been the cross which has revealed to good men that their goodness has not been good enough. —Johann Hieronymus Schroder Human-made gods tend to be very self-focused, egomaniacs whose whims we basically have to placate. We mere mortals have to duck to avoid their temper tantrums. They are projections of the human ego. We indeed want to be masters of the universe in
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this clash of the titans. Jesus Christ is the Master of the Universe and yet he became the Suffering Servant. He is the Alpha and Omega, yet died the death of a common criminal...Last Sunday [Easter Sunday 2010], we celebrated real power; the power of the one, true living God over death and hell. He laid down his life and He took up his life again. His clash with evil won our freedom and deserves our all. The gods we create are amateurs in comparison. —Ergun Caner Christian minister and professor You are who you are in Christ. There is pressure sometimes and there is not pressure other times. But I don't flip a switch and turn my faith on and off. Once Christ's peace, joy, compassion, love and patience is in you, it affects everything. —Chan Gailey American football coach To be in Christ is the source of the Christian’s life; to be like Christ is the sum of His excellence; to be with Christ is the fullness of His joy. —Charles Hodge
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My life isn't good because I'm a football player. I'm a football player because my life is good. Jesus Christ has made my life good. His grace and His forgiveness have changed me. —Jon Kitna American football player
Talking about my relationship with Jesus Christ is as natural as breathing for me. I say relationship because it's a day-by-day, night-by-night, ongoing communication between Jesus and me. I'm not saying that any person can use the name of Jesus and beat every opponent. If that were true, I could skip all my practices, and forget about my weight training and conditioning. But I do want to live and breathe Jesus Christ so much that when people see me, they see Him. I still mess up and fall short of imitating Him in my life, but He always forgives and encourages me. —Reggie White professional football player
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Now there's a peace in my life, and I know that Jesus is a part of everything I do, on or off the ice. My focus has changed, knowing that I don't have to worry about results. It really becomes simple. I put in the training and technically I know what to do. Then I just go out and skate as well as I can and leave the rest up to the Lord. That's the attitude I took with me to Nagano, Japan for the 1998 Winter Games. I knew that no matter how well I did, Jesus would be there for me. This time around I skated well, and captured the gold medal in the 500-metre race. And though it was great to win the Olympic Gold again in Salt Lake City, I know it's my relationship with Jesus that gives me true significance. He loves me, brings joy to my life and gives me peace. With him, my life is truly fulfilling. —Catriona LeMay Doan Canadian speed skater and Olympic champion
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There are over two billion Christians in the world today. And in some places around the globe, those numbers are growing at an astronomical rate. So, what made the Way to Eternal Life that Jesus Christ taught so powerful? And how could twelve men have spread His message from a house in Jerusalem to the far-flung corners of the world? Christus... suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus. —Cornelius Tacitus, Roman Historian (said to be the first historical reference to Jesus Christ)
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No man ever lived like Jesus. He taught the blind to see and the dumb to speak. He died on the cross to save us. He bore our sins. And God says, “Because He did, I can forgive you.” —Billy Graham Christian evangelist
God had only one Son, and He was a missionary and a physician. —David Livingstone They gave Him a manger for a cradle, a carpenter’s bench for a pulpit, thorns for a crown, and a cross for a throne. He took them and made them the very glory of his career. —W.E. Orchard I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ. —David Livingstone
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As Gregory of Nyssa pictures it, He entered paradise bringing with Him His Bride, Humanity, whom He had just wedded on the cross. —Jean Daniola All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass— Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. —Archibald Alexander
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Larry King was once asked who he would most want to interview if he could choose anyone from all of history. He said, “Jesus Christ.” The questioner said, “And what would you like to ask Him?” King replied, “I would like to ask Him if He was indeed virgin-born. The answer to that question would define history for me.” —Selected
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Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to His beloved is that of overcoming self. —St. Francis of Assisi God clothed Himself in vile man’s flesh so He might be weak enough to suffer woe. —John Donne Up Calvary’s mountain, one dreadful morn, Walked Christ my Saviour, weary and worn; Facing for sinners death on the Cross, That He might save them from endless loss. —Avis B. Christiansen He Who was foretold and foreshadowed by the holy religion of Judea, which was designed to free the universal aspiration of mankind from every impure element, He has come to instruct, to obey, to love, to die, and by dying to save mankind. —Edmond de Pressense The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me. —Denis Diderot
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From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls. —Sadhu Sundar Singh Indian missionary
I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I now most solemnly impress upon you the truth and beauty of the Christian religion as it came from Christ Himself, and the impossibility of going far wrong if you humbly but heartily respect it. —Charles Dickens
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There is but one love of Jesus, as there is but one person in the poor—Jesus. We take vows of chastity to love Christ with undivided love; to be able to love Him with undivided love we take a vow of poverty which frees us from all material possessions, and with that freedom we can love Him with undivided love, and from this vow of undivided love we surrender ourselves totally to Him in the person who takes his place. —Mother Teresa Missionary to India
He who alone was free among the dead—because He was free to lay down His life and free to take it up again—was for us both victor and victim...and it is because He was the victim that He was also the victor. —St. Augustine Jesus cannot be our Saviour unless He is first our Lord. —Hugh C. Burr
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We owed a debt we could not pay; and Jesus paid a debt He did not owe. —Joyce Meyer Christian speaker and author
It seemed to me that Jesus Christ came down the aisle with a cross on His back, and with a crown of thorns on His Head, and with spittle and slime running down his face. ‘What can I do for you?’ He asked. ‘Lord, do for me that which I cannot do for myself,’ I cried. —B. R. Lakin We believe that the first time we’re born, as children, it’s human life given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, it’s a new life. That’s what “born again” means. —Robert L. Turner Every person is Christ for me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment. —Mother Teresa
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A man who was completely innocent, offered Himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including His enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. —Mahatma Gandhi Indian political leader
No man can follow Christ and go astray. —William H.P. Faunce In an unpermissible and unlawful way people have become knowing about Christ, for the only permissible way is to be believing. —Soren Kierkegaard Belief in the resurrection of Jesus is the motive power of all Christian mankind. From what did this faith spring? From five or six remarkably vivid hallucinations. To think so is just as absurd as to suppose that five or six sparks would make water
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boil in a huge caldron. —Dimitrii Merezhkovski I love to hear my Lord spoken of, and wherever I have seen the print of His shoe in the earth, there have I coveted to put mine also. —John Bunyan The Christian is not one who has gone all the way with Christ. None of us has. The Christian is one who has found the right road. —Charles L. Allen To become Christ-like is the only thing in the whole world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain. —Henry Drummond Jesus promised His disciples three things: that they would be entirely fearless, absurdly happy, and that they would get into trouble. —W. Russell Maltby
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The men who followed Him were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same. —Billy Graham Christian evangelist
Jesus loves you and God approves this message. —Church Sign The greatest thing about any civilization is the human person, and the greatest thing about this person is the possibility of his encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. —Charles Malik Jesus Christ is the world’s only Saviour! —Max Solbrekken
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I live as though Jesus Christ was crucified yesterday, arose today and is coming again tomorrow. —Martin Luther
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People who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks: (1) They are facing only one direction. (2) They can never turn back. (3) And they no longer have plans of their own. —A.W. Tozer American pastor, educator, and speaker
There are many sciences that may be learned by the head, but the science of Christ crucified can only be learned by the heart. —C.H. Spurgeon A rule I have had for years is: to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend. His is not a creed, a mere doctrine, but it is He Himself we have. —Dwight L. Moody
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When Jesus Christ asked little children to come to him, he didn’t say only rich children, or white children, or children with twoparent families, or children who didn’t have a mental or physical handicap. He said, “Let all children come unto me.” —Marian Wright Edelman American activist
God has revealed Himself in His Son Jesus Christ, Who is His Word issuing from the silence. —St. Ignatius of Antioch If these could know Him, it would not seem unreasonable to believe that we for whom Christ died should be able to know Him personally, positively, intimately. —B. R. Lakin The face of Christ does not indeed show us
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everything, but it shows us the one thing we need to know—the character of God. God is the God who sent Jesus. —P. Carnegie Simpson I have one passion. It is He, only He. —Count Zinzendorf To the artist He is the one altogether lovely, and to the educator He is the master teacher. To the philosopher He is the wisdom of God, and to the lonely He is a brother; to the sorrowful, a comforter; to the bereaved, the resurrection and the life. And to the sinner he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin from the world. —John Gerstner The only way I know for any man or woman on Earth to escape the sinner’s payday on Earth and the sinner’s hell beyond—making sure of the Christian’s payday on Earth and the Christian’s heaven beyond— is through Christ Jesus, who took the sinner’s place upon the Cross, becoming for all sinners all that God must judge, that sinners through faith in Christ Jesus
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might become all that God cannot judge. —R.G. Lee We should remember that people can go to Heaven without knowing much of the Word of God, but they cannot go to Heaven without knowing Jesus Christ as Savior. —Lee Roberson Our desire is to know Christ, not simply to know about Him. —Clarence Sexton I am a real Christian—that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ. —Thomas Jefferson
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Jesus Christ has paid the price to set the prisoners free—and that is the passion that drives me.
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—Nicky Cruz Christian evangelist
Jesus says, “I love you just the way you are. And I love you too much to let you stay the way you are.” —Chris Lyons Jesus Christ will be Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all. —St. Augustine of Hippo Only once did God choose a completely sinless preacher. —Alexander Whyte A Christian has a union with Jesus Christ more noble, more intimate and more perfect than the members of a human body have with their head. —John Eides Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from His lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. —Thomas Jefferson They should have known that He was God. His patience should have proved that to them. —Tertullian
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Try all the ways to peace and welfare you can think of, and you will find that there is no way that brings you to it except the way of Jesus. But this way does bring it to you. —Matthew Arnold I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need. —Charles H. Spurgeon
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Fundamentally, our Lord’s message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, “I am the bread.” He did not come merely to shed light; He said, “I am the light.” He did not come merely to show the door; He said, “I am the door.” He did not come merely to name a shepherd; He said, “I am the shepherd.” He did not come merely to point the way; He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” —J. Sidlow Baxter Pastor, author and theologian
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We get no deeper into Christ than we allow Him to get into us. —John Henry Jowett Preacher
Nothing will do except righteousness; and no other conception of righteousness will do except Christ’s conception of it. —Matthew Arnold I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man. I adhere to the principles of the first age; and consider all subsequent innovations as corruptions of this religion, having no foundation in what came from Him. —Thomas Jefferson Feed on Christ, and then go and live your life, and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that helps the poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battle, and that wins the crown. —Phillips Brooks
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If Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God in the experience of those who trust and love Him, there needs no further argument of His divinity. —Henry Ward Beecher
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Christianity takes for granted the absence of any self-help and offers a power which is nothing less than the power of God. —A. W. Tozer American pastor, author and speaker
The reason why God’s servants love creatures so much is that they see how much Christ loves them, and it is one of the properties of love to love what is loved by the person we love. —St. Catherine of Siena The essence of Christianity consists therein: that the creation of the Father, destroyed by sin, is again restored in the death of the Son of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy Spirit to a Kingdom of God. —Herman Bavinck
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We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. —C.S. Lewis British writer, professor and Christian apologist
The divinity of Jesus is not a dispensable extra that has no significance for our salvation. On the contrary, our salvation depends on it. We can be saved only by God Himself. —K. Runia I like to hear a man dwell much on the same essentials of Christianity. For we have but one God, and one Christ, and one faith to preach; and I will not preach another Gospel to please men with variety, as if our Saviour and our Gospel had grown stale. —Richard Baxter
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Let us serve Him faithfully as our Master. Let us obey Him loyally as our King. Let us study His teachings as our Prophet. Let us work diligently after Him as our Example. Let us look anxiously for Him as our coming redeemer of body as well as soul. But above all let us prize Him as our Sacrifice, and rest our whole weight on His death as atonement for sin. Let His blood be more precious in our eyes every year we live. Whatever else we glory in about Christ, let us glory above all things in His cross. —J.C. Ryle
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[Jesus] picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world. —Bruce Barton American writer and politician
I am no friend of present-day Christianity, though its Founder was sublime. —Vincent van Gogh
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The religion of Jesus Christ is not ascetic, nor sour, nor gloomy, nor circumscribing. It is full of sweetness in the present and in promise. —Henry Ward Beecher In speaking of Jesus, I must speak about Christianity because I do not think it possible or profitable to divide the two. —Lionel Blue For us as a church that follows Jesus Christ, we put a lot of stake in Jesus, His life, His purpose, His teachings and His example. We love and serve because Jesus loves us, serves us and calls us to do the same. —John Fairchild People talk about imitating Christ, and imitate Him in the little trifling formal things, such as washing the feet, saying His prayer, and so on; but if anyone attempts the real imitation of Him, there are no bounds to the outcry with which the presumption of that person is condemned. —Florence Nightingale
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The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in. —Peter Marshall
When Jesus came to earth, demons recognized him, the sick flocked to him, and sinners doused his feet and head with perfume. Meanwhile he offended pious Jews with their strict preconceptions of what God should be like. Their rejection makes me wonder, could religious types be doing just the reverse now? Could we be perpetuating an image of Jesus that fits our pious expectations but does not match the person portrayed so vividly in the Gospels?
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—Phillip Yancey American author Christianity is not a doctrine, not truth as truth, but the knowledge of a Person; it is knowing the Lord Jesus. You cannot be educated into being a Christian. —T. Austin-Sparks
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The message of Christ is not Christianity. The message of Christ is Christ. —Gary Amirault Take away the personal Christ from the gospels, leaving the same precepts and doctrines, and the whole aspect of Christianity would change, as the aspect of the earth changes when the sun goes down. The same eternal mountains lift their heads to heaven; the same rivers flow onward. But their animation is gone; they are cold, and gray, and dark. Thus would Christianity be without that central personage, around which all its glories cluster—from which they stream. —E.H. Chapin The Christian is not one who has gone all the way with Christ. None of us has. The Christian is one who has found the right road. —Charles L. Allen Christ was born in a stable; He was obliged to fly into Egypt; thirty years of His life were spent in a workshop; He suffered hunger, thirst, and weariness;
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He was poor, despised, and miserable; He taught the doctrines of heaven, and no one would listen. The great and the wise persecuted and took Him, subjected Him to frightful torments, treated Him as a slave, and put Him to death between two malefactors, having preferred to give liberty to a robber, rather than to suffer Him to escape. Such was the life which our Lord chose; while we are horrified at any kind of humiliation, and cannot bear the slightest appearance of contempt. —Francois Fenelon How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; paradise, not its loss.It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior,was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree had destroyed us; a tree now brought us life. —Theodore of Studios Stir up the fire of your faith! Christ is not a figure of the past. He is not a memory lost in history. He lives! As Paul says, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today —yes, and forever!’ —Josemaria Escriva
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I think my own persistence is what led to my divine connection with Jesus. I never stopped reaching for a closer relationship. —Benny Hinn Evangelist and best-selling author
But Christ could certainly not have established the Church. That is, the institution we now call by that name, for nothing resembling our present conception of the Church—with its sacraments, its hierarchy, and especially its claim to infallibility—is to be found in Christ’s words... —Leo Tolstoy The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth. —Henry Morris The gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules
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for just conduct in every situation of life. Happy are they who are enabled to obey them in all situations! —Benjamin Rush I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man. —Alexander Hamilton Prayer is the risen Jesus coming in with His resurrection power, given free rein in our lives, and then using His authority to enter any situation and change things. —Ole Kristian O. Hallesby I love Jesus Christ and that is why I am on fire with the desire to give Him souls, first of all my own, and then an incalculable number of others. —Alphonsus Liguori The Blood of Jesus washes away our past and the Name of Jesus opens up our future. —Jesse Duplantis
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Jewish authors would never have invented either that style nor that morality; and the Gospel has marks of truth so great, so striking, so utterly inimitable, that the invention of it would be more astonishing than the hero… Shall we suppose that the evangelical history is a mere fiction? Indeed it bears no marks of fiction; on the contrary, the history of Socrates, which no one presumes to doubt, is not so well attested to as that of Jesus Christ. —Jean Jacques Rousseau And so the word had breath, and wrought with human hands the creed of creeds in loveliness of perfect deeds, more strong than all poetic thought. —Alfred Lord Tennyson I accept the resurrection of Easter Sunday not as an invention of the community of disciples, but as a historical event. —Pinchas Lapide
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The benefits [of the resurrection] are innumerable. To list a few: Our illnesses don't seem nearly so final; Our fears
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fade and lose their grip; Our grief over those who have gone on is diminished; Our desires to press on in spite of the obstacles is rejuvenated... Our identity as Christians is strengthened as we stand in the lengthening shadows of saints down through the centuries, who have always answered back in antiphonal voice: 'He is risen, indeed!' —Charles Swindoll Christian pastor, author, and radio preacher So if the world hates us, we take courage that it hated Jesus first. If you're wondering whether you'll be safe, just look at what they did to Jesus and those who followed him. There are safer ways to live than by being a Christian. —Shane Claiborne Christ is not only a remedy for your weariness and trouble, but he will give you an abundance of the contrary, joy and delight. They who come to Christ, do not only come to a resting-place after they have
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been wandering in a wilderness, but they come to a banqueting-house where they may rest, and where they may feast. They may cease from their former troubles and toils, and they may enter upon a course of delights and spiritual joys. —Jonathan Edwards It wasn’t the morality of the Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism, but the belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. In an age when Roman senators vied to see who could get the most blood of a steer on their togas—thinking that would prevent death— Christianity was in competition for eternal life, not morality. —Ernst Bloch
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For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, the quest of the ages is over. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, came to dwell among us, being "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." For us, I say, the quest is over because God has now revealed
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Himself to us. What Jesus is, the Father is. Whoever looks on the Lord Jesus Christ looks upon all of God. —A. W. Tozer American Christian pastor, speaker, and author, The gospel demands not works to make us holy and to redeem us. Indeed, it condemns such works, and demands only faith in Christ, because He has overcome sin, death and hell for us. —Martin Luther The essential teachings of Jesus... were literally revolutionary, and will always remain so if they are taken seriously. —Herbert Muller Better the storm with Christ than smooth waters without Him. —Author Unknown
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I opened my Bible to a passage that said, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord
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Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved..." (Romans 10:9). The words hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew they were meant for me and at that precise moment I was delivered. I put my trust in Jesus and I asked Him into my life. And as soon as I realized what I had done I was so excited I had to tell somebody, so I got on the phone and called my attorney and said,"Eugene, I did it! I got saved!" —Deion Sanders former professional football and baseball player The holy one... The divine man...The human mind, no matter how far it may advance in every other department, will never transcend the height and moral culture of Christianity as it shines and glows in the gospels. —Goethe Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. —Mother Teresa
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Our problem is this: we usually discover him within some denominational or Christian ghetto. We meet him in a province and, having caught some little view, we paint him in smaller strokes. The Lion of Judah is reduced to something kittenish because our understanding cannot, at first, write larger definitions. —Calvin Miller
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Jesus Christ became Incarnate for one purpose, to make a way back to God that man might stand before Him as He was created to do, the friend and lover of God Himself. —Oswald Chambers Scottish Protestant minister
Christ alone... has affirmed as a principal certainty, eternal life, the infinity of time, the nothingness of death, the necessity and the raison d’etre of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as a greater artist
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than all other artists, despising marble and clay as well as color, working in living flesh. That is to say, this matchless artist... made neither statues nor pictures nor books; he loudly proclaimed that he made... living men, immortals. —Vincent van Gogh
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I consider western Christianity in its practical working a negation of Christ’s Christianity. —Mohandas Gandhi Political and social leader in India
Because Christianity’s influence is so pervasive throughout much of the world, it is easy to forget how radical its beliefs once were. Jesus’ resurrection forever changed Christians’ view of death. Rodney Stark, sociologist at the University of Washington, points out that when a major plague hit the ancient Roman Empire, Christians had surprisingly high survival rates. Why? Most Roman citizens would banish any plague-stricken person from their household. But because Christians had no fear of
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death, they nursed their sick instead of throwing them out on the streets. Therefore, many Christians survived the plague. —Kenneth L. Woodward in “2000 Years of Jesus”, Newsweek That Jesus of Nazareth died upon a cross is mere matter of history; that He who did so die was the Christ the Son of God is entirely a matter of revelation. —Sir Robert Anderson
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My arena league teammates, a pastor friend of mine, and my future wife were constantly asking questions about my beliefs, and I began to question where I was and whether I had really put my complete faith in God. Their questions led me to the Truth—that faith is about a relationship, and it's about Jesus. Up to that point, I had never really considered that. I struggled for so long and so many things went against me.
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When I finally gave my life over to God— it was then that joy and happiness came into my life. Now I realize my role here on Earth is not to throw touchdown passes and win football games. I realize my goal is to win as many people to Jesus as possible. —Kurt Warner American football player ...Death was not Jesus’ penalty; it was His destiny. It was not His lot in life; it was His mission. It was not His unavoidable fate; it was His purpose statement for coming to earth that first Christmas: ‘Born to die.’ —Bill Crowder We do not attach any intrinsic value to the Cross; this would be sinful and idolatrous. Our veneration is referred to Him who died upon it. —James, Cardinal Gibbons Christ is risen! With this victorious cry the gospel
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has passed through the lands. The message of the cross is at the same time a message of resurrection. In this lies its invincibility. —Eric Sauer
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Believe that Jesus did what the Bible says. Believe He is indeed the Son of God, born of a virgin. He took man's sin on the cross. He did not stay dead. He was in the grave three days. During that time, He entered hell, where you and I deserved to go (legally) because of our sin. —Joyce Meyer Christian author and speaker
Jesus went to the cross because God is holy and sin must be punished. —John K. Hutcheson, Sr. The resurrection of the dead is the chief truth of the Christian faith....He who takes away the resurrection mantles our future with Egyptian darkness. To take away the resurrection is to leave
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man with no preeminence above the beast....Other doctrines are important; this is one of the essentials. —Robert L. Moyer
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I can't imagine more surprising places for God to appear than a manger or a cross. Yet all through his life and resurrection, Jesus demonstrates the power of showing and sharing God's love. Every time I write a script or a song or walk into the studio, I pray 'Let some word that is heard be Thine.' That's really all that matters. —Fred Rogers American educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, and television host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”
Live in the awareness that Christ lives and that He lives in His people. —Julien B. Weil The tomb of Christ is famous because of what it DOES NOT CONTAIN. —Sam Morris
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I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. —Mohandas Gandhi Political and social leader of India
The point is not that the resurrection is the price paid for our sins. The point is that the resurrection proves the death of Jesus is an all-sufficient price. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then his death was a failure, God did not vindicate his sin-bearing achievement, and we are still in our sins. —John Piper What reason have atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? Which is the more difficult, to be born or to rise again? That what has never been, should be, or that what has been, should be again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it? —Blaise Pascal The resurrection proclamation could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single
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hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact. —Paul Althus What makes Jesus such a wonderful counselor is that His perspective is infinite; His resources unlimited. His experience includes a lifetime on earth during which he experienced the same trials and temptations we face. Who could be better qualified to offer us guidance and direction? —Tony Evans The resurrection is the centre of the centre, the real heart of Christianity as it has been until now. —David F. Strauss The cross of Christ shows us that God's love is of deepest descent...universal distribution ...and of eternal duration. —Dr. Fred Barlow Christianity begins where religion ends...with the resurrection. —Herbert Booth Smith
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Christmas...when we think of this time of year, we think of snow, laughter, joy, and merry times with family and friends. But over two thousand years ago, there was no warm welcome for Jesus Christ, the Reason for Christmas. The manger is Heaven, yes, greater than Heaven. Heaven is the handiwork of this Child. —Agathias Scholasticus Trumpets! Lightnings! The earth trembles! But into the Virgin’s womb Thou didst descend with noiseless tread. —Selected
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There is only one Person who can enable you to release your past, and He is the One we celebrate this season [Christmas]. He is not the robust image of the man with the white fur collar; He is the most real being ever to walk the earth—Jesus Christ. —T.D. Jakes Christian minister
Christ was born in the first century, yet he belongs to all centuries. He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races. He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries. —George W. Truett Christmas hath a darkness, Brighter than the blazing noon; Christmas hath a chillness, Warmer than the heat of June; Christmas hath a beauty, Lovelier than the world can show: For Christmas bringeth Jesus, Brought for us so low. —Christina Rosetti
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Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: a cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, the incarnation of perfect love. —Lucinda Franks
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Why did Christ come into the world? To liberate people from sickness, troubles, from death. In its essence, Christmas is a holiday of hope. —Vladimir Putin Russian president and prime minister
CHRISTMAS is Christ's Historic, Remarkable Incarnation Story, Telling Messiah's Awaited Salvation. —Jose B. Cabajar Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twentyfifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then
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smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven’s making. —Leigh Hunt God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is love; the radiance of Christmas, which is purity; the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice; the belief in Christmas, which is truth; the all of Christmas, which is Christ. —Wilda English
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The star of Bethlehem was a star of hope that led the wise men to the fulfillment of their expectations, the success of their expedition. Nothing in this world is more fundamental for success in life than hope, and this star pointed to our only source for true hope: Jesus Christ. —D. James Kennedy American pastor
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Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide-open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart. —George Matthew Adams Love came down at Christmas; Love all lovely, love divine; Love was born at Christmas, Stars and angels gave the sign. —Christina Rossetti The giving of gifts is not something man invented. God started the giving spree when he gave a gift beyond words, the unspeakable gift of His Son. —Robert Flatt The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day
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for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected. —Samuel Johnson Once in royal David’s city Stood a lowly cattle-shed, Where a mother laid her baby In a manger for his bed. Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child. —Cecil Fances Alexander Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shout and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born. The world had a Savior! The angels called it "Good News," and it was. —Larry Libby
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CHRIST AND THE MODERN ERA
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Christ is not merely an ancient figure, but a living Being who holds influence and sway over men’s lives today.
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As God’s only Son, Jesus came to Earth and gave His life so that we may live. His actions and His words remind us that service to others is central to our lives and that sacrifice and unconditional love must guide us and inspire us to lead lives of compassion, mercy, and justice. —George W. Bush 43rd U.S. President
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I am a fan of Jesus, and have been for going on sixty-two years, and I believe every word, every word that the Lord has ever said about anything. —Tom Malone
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Real men do live for Christ. It is important to make your peace with Christ while the opportunity exists. Life is so fragile that you never know when it's going to be over. It could be over in the blink of an eye, and then it's too late to accept God's gift of salvation. —Chuck Norris American martial artist and actor
That...man...says women can’t have as much rights as man, cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from?...From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with Him. —Sojourner Truth
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The Jews tried to keep Christ contained within their law, while the Greeks sought to turn Him into a philosophy; the Romans made of Him an empire; the Europeans reduced Him to a culture, and we Americans have made a business of Him. —Selected Keep Martin Luther King in the background, and God (Jesus) in the foreground, and everything will be alright. —Martin Luther King, Jr. Christ is not valued at all, unless He is valued above all. —Augustine It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! —Patrick Henry
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I think that everybody that loves Christ or knows Christ, whether they are conscious
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of it or not, they are members of the Body of Christ....That is what God is doing today. He is calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, the Buddhist world, the Christian world or the non-believing world. They are members of the body of Christ because they have been called by God. —Billy Graham Christian evangelist The whole of history is incomprehensible without Him [Jesus]. —La Vie de Jesus It is important to recognize that Jesus came as a servant, not as a king. In coaching, there is often a temptation for the coach to see himself as the ultimate authority and the athletes as being subservient. If Jesus is the model, then the coach is truly a servant of his players. —Tom Osborne
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A radical revolution—embracing even nature itself, was the fundamental idea of Jesus. —Joseph Ernest Kenan Whenever Christianity has struck out a new path on her journey it has been because the personality of Jesus has again become living, and a ray from His Being has once more illuminated the world. —Anonymous I find the name of Jesus Christ written on the top of every page of modern history. —George Bancroft If Christ is not divine, every impulse of the Christian world falls to a lower octave, and light and love and hope decline. —Henry Ward Beecher
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When you look at the reasons why Christ came, why He was crucified— He died for all mankind, He suffered for all mankind. So that, really, anybody that transgresses needs to look at their own
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part or their own culpability. It’s time to get back to a basic message, the message that was given... He forgave as He was tortured and killed. —Mel Gibson Actor, film director and producer The sages and heroes of history are receding from us, and history contracts the record of their deeds into a narrower and narrower page. But time has no power over the name and deeds and words of Jesus Christ. —William Ellery Channing
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The U.N. Preamble reminds me of a secular version of the Lord's prayer because they say, 'Deliver us from evil.' Yet, they say it not to God, but to each other: 'Let us eliminate evil.' ...I thought about Jesus Christ the perfectly virtuous Son of God who was
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tried before an essentially indifferent Roman court and destroyed. God's own Son was not delivered from evil and violent death through the legal institutions of His society... I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions. —Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick Former United Nations Ambassador (U.S.) Don’t compare me with Jesus. He is a great master, a great master. —Dalai Lama Art is the Tree of Life. Science is the Tree of Death. God is Jesus. —William Blake
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…I live with God ever before me. I recognize His omnipotence, I fear His anger; I acknowledge His love, too, His compassion and mercy towards all His creatures; He will never desert those who serve Him. —Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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When I look at Jesus’ warm and intimate friendships, my heart fills with praise that Jesus was...a man. A man of flesh-and-blood reality. His heart felt the sting of sympathy. His eyes glowed with tenderness. His arms embraced. His lips smiled. His hands touched. Jesus was male! Jesus invites us to relate to him as the Son of Man. And because he is fully man, we can relate to Jesus with affection and love. —Joni Eareckson Tada Author and radio host
Son of Man, whenever I doubt of life I think of Thee. Thou never growest old to me. Last century is old. Last year is obsolete fashion, but Thou art not
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obsolete. Thou art abreast of all the centuries, and I have never come up to Thee, modern as I am. —Prayer of George Matheson The cross is a very powerful symbol and it symbolises suffering, but it also is connected to a person who was loving and sharing and his message was about unconditional love... For me, we all need to be Jesus in our time. —Selected I am pretty sure that we err in treating these sayings as paradoxes. It would be nearer the truth to say that it is life itself which is paradoxical and that the sayings of Jesus are simply a recognition of that fact. —Thomas Taylor
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Jesus Christ — the greatest of all subjects. —Tony Evans Pastor and author
I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless Preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of
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history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history. —H.G. Wells Jesus Christ is to me the outstanding personality of all time, all history, both as Son of God and as Son of Man. Everything He ever said or did has value for us today and that is something you can say of no other man, dead or alive. There is no easy middle ground to stroll upon. You either accept Jesus or reject Him. —Sholem Asch
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It's two thousand years since Jesus was born and here we are on the eve of the Millennium singing lyrics that [Jesus] gave to His disciples. The song won't offend anybody. It's just a really good positive thought for the future: 'Please give us food... please keep us from evil... please help us to be forgiving as we want others to forgive us.' It has all the great positive factors that everybody would desire for the new millennium. —Sir Cliff Richards, British rock star Commenting on his singing the Lord's Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne
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Christ has come to bring the good news for you and for me. And as if that was not enough—it was not enough to become a man—He died on the cross to show that greater love, and He died for you and for me and for that leper and for that man dying of hunger and that naked person lying in the streets, not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, and New York, and London, and Oslo—and insisted that we love one another as He loves each one of us. —Mother Teresa a nun who ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying for 45 years in India
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When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ, who gives you the meaning of life. When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ, who is the fulfillness of humanity. And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world look to Christ. —Karol Józef Wojtyla Pope John Paul II of the Catholic Church
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The cross has become so widely used as religious jewelry...even a sign of good luck that it has lost much of it original meaning and horror. It has become so generally accepted, in fact, that everyone from devoted followers of Christ to hard rock musicians wear its image around their necks. —Jesus, Who is this Man who says He’s God?, Radio Bible Class
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The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country. —Calvin Coolidge 30th President of the United States
What I attempt to do in Congress is pretty straight forward. My job is to prevent government from
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destroying our freedom. But the most important work to be done is for a person to come to terms with Jesus. That’s my advice for anybody. —Dick Armey U.S. Representative Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky Jesus is there for us in the Scriptures. How often do we ignore Him? We must shake off this indifference. Only the Faith and the wisdom of the Church can save us, but it requires men and women, warriors ready to risk their good names, even their very lives to stand up for the truth. —Jim Caviezel American film actor I am reminded of a statue in an English church that
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was bombed in World War II. It was a statue of Jesus with his hands outreached and with the inscription, 'Come unto me.' When they were restoring this statue, they could not find the hands. Instead of making new hands, they simply changed the inscription to read, 'Be my hands.' I think this is a beautiful picture of what we are called to be in this world. —Foster Friess
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In his own lifetime Jesus made no impact on history. This is something that I cannot but regard as a special dispensation on God’s part, and, I like to think, yet another example of the ironical humour which informs so many of his purposes. To me, it seems highly appropriate that the most important figure in all history should thus escape the notice of memoirists, diarists, commentators, all the tribe of chroniclers who even then existed. —Malcolm Muggeridge British journalist, author and media personality
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JESUS: THE PERFECT LIFE, THE GREATEST LOVE
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The power that we recognize in Jesus Christ is because of the singular life that He lived. No other man lived, loved, died, or rose again like He did. Lovely was the death of Him whose life was Love! Holy with power, He on the thought-benighted skeptic beamed Manifest Godhead. —Samuel Taylor Coleridge The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. —Thomas Kelley
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If you knew that only a few would care that you came, would you still come? If you knew that those you loved would laugh in your face, would you still care? If you knew that the tongues you made would mock you, the mouths you made would spit at you, the hands you made would crucify you, would you still make them? Christ did. —Max Lucado Minister and bestselling author
Do you think it was self-denial for the Lord Jesus to come down from heaven to rescue a world: Was it self-denial? No, it was love—love that swallows up everything, and first of all self. —Nikolaus Ludvig von Zinzendorf
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But to see Jesus! Jesus who saved me. Just to see Jesus is Heaven at last!
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—John R. Rice Evangelist and author
I am born for God only. Christ is nearer to me than father, or mother, or sister – a near relation, a more affectionate Friend; and I rejoice to follow Him, and to love Him. Blessed Jesus! Thou art all I want -a forerunner to me in all I ever shall go through as a Christian, a minister, or a missionary. —Henry Martyn God be thanked for that good and perfect gift, the gift unspeakable: His life, His love, His very self in Christ Jesus. —Maltbie D. Babcock The name of Christ—the one great word—well worth all the languages in earth or heaven. —Samuel Bailey When Jesus Christ utters a word, He opens His mouth so wide that it embraces all Heaven and earth, even though that word be but in a whisper. —Martin Luther In Christ we have... A love that can never be fathomed,
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A life that can never die, A righteousness that can never be tarnished, A peace that can never be understood, A rest that can never be disturbed, A joy that can never be diminished, A hope that can never be disappointed, A glory that can never be clouded, A light that can never be darkened, A purity that can never be defiled, A beauty that can never be marred, A wisdom that can never be baffled, Resources that can never be exhausted. Jesus is our all in all! —Anonymous He changed sunset into sunrise. —Clement of Alexandria Earth grows into heaven, as we come to live and breathe in the atmosphere of the incarnation. Jesus makes heaven wherever He is. —Frederick William Faber In praise of Thy goodness I must confess that Thou
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didst try with all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee to let me feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate my proud heart by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune didst Thou send upon me to turn my thoughts to my errantries. One thing, only, O Father, do I ask: cease not to labor for my betterment. In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works. —Ludwig van Beethoven The most perfect being who has ever trod the soil of this planet was called the Man of Sorrows. —James Anthony Froude That man...says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and aren’t I a woman?…I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could read me—and aren’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well—and aren’t I a woman?
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I have borne thirteen children and seen them most all sold off into slavery. And when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard—and aren’t I a woman? —Sojourner Truth I know of no sincere enduring good but the moral excellency which shines forth in Jesus Christ. —William Ellery Channing Jesus Christ is in the noblest and most perfect sense the realized ideal of humanity. —Johann Gottfried von Herder The highest service may be prepared for and done in the humblest surroundings. In silence, in waiting, in obscure, unnoticed offices, in years of uneventful, unrecorded duties, the Son of God grew and waxed strong. —Inscription in the Chapel of Stanford University Christ will remain a priest and king, though He was
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never consecrated by any papist bishop or greased by any of those shavelings; but He was ordained and consecrated by God Himself, and by Him anointed. —Martin Luther Jesus Christ is the center of all, and the goal to which all tends. —Blaise Pascal You never get to the end of Christ’s words. There is something in them always behind. They pass into proverbs; they pass into laws; they pass into doctrines; they pass into consolations; but they never pass away, and after all the use that is made of them they are still not exhausted. —Arthur P. Stanley
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Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste. The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which
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undermines the whole mind of man. If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no change for you. We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a great moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects—Hatred—Terror—Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval. —C.S. Lewis Author, professor and apologist All His glory and beauty come from within, and there He delights to dwell, His visits there are frequent, His conversation sweet, His comforts refreshing; and His peace passing all understanding. —Thomas a Kempis The name of Jesus is the one lever that lifts the world. —Author Unknown
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No one can truly see Christ, and drink in the influence of his character, and not be a Christian at heart. —E.H. Chapin Jesus...associated with the outcasts; he spoke with them, touched them, ate with them, loved them. —John Ortberg “What are we to make of Christ?” There is no question of what we can make of Him, it is entirely a question of what He intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story. The things He says are very different from what any other teacher has said. Others say, “This is the truth about the Universe. This is the way you ought to go.” But He says, “I am the Truth, and the Way, and the Life.” He says, “No man can reach absolute reality, except through Me. Try to retain your own life and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away and you will be saved.” He says, “If you are ashamed of Me, if, when you hear this call, you turn the other way, I also will look the other way when I come again as God without disguise. If anything whatever is keeping you from God and from Me, whatever it is, throw it away. If it
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is your eye, pull it out. If it is your hand, cut it off. If you put yourself first you will be last. Come to Me everyone who is carrying a heavy load, I will set that right. Your sins, all of them, are wiped out; I can do that. I am Re-birth. I am Life. Eat Me. Drink Me. I am your Food. And finally, do not be afraid, I have overcome the whole Universe.” That is the issue. —C.S. Lewis Author, professor and apologist
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Christ, Who being rich became poor and emptied Himself to work out our redemption, calls us: to share in His poverty so that we might become rich through His poverty; to bear witness to the true face of Jesus—poor, humble, and friend of sinners, the weak and the despised. —Mother Theresa Missionary to India
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Down below all the crust of human conceptions, of human ideas, Christ sank an artesian well into a source of happiness so pure and blessed that even yet the world does not believe in it. —E.H. Chapin Hang this question up in your homes – “What would Jesus do?” and then think of another – “How would Jesus do it?” For what Jesus would do, and how He would do it, may always stand as the best guide to us. —C.H. Spurgeon I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of my self, Caesar, and Alexander should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant—Jesus—should be able to stretch His hands across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations. —Napoleon Bonaparte Philosophical argument has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith that was in me; but my heart has always assured me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be reality. —Daniel Webster
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In darkness there is no choice. It is light that enables us to see the differences between things; and it is Christ that gives us light. —C.T. Whitmell The Sermon on the Mount is Christ’s biography. Every syllable He had already written down in deeds. The sermon merely translated His life into language. —Thomas Wright
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I can say that I never knew what joy was like until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared to live until I chose to die. For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus. —Malcolm Muggeridge British journalist, author, and media personality
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To holy people the very name of Jesus is a name to feed upon, a name to transport. His name can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living. —John Henry Newman At the end of the day only one thing matters and that’s Jesus; just Jesus, and nothing else. —Selected Nothing in my painting shall attract more attention than the face of my Master. —Leonardo Da Vinci
Jesus Christ provides a basis for hope and for the most profound personal satisfaction. —Glenn C. Louis
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Love of God does not mean we must love Him first. Rather, He loved us first, creating the world and leaving it in our care, sending His only son to us to spread the Gospel, and, finally, opening
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the way for us to deliver ourselves from sin through the crucifixion of His innocent son, Jesus. Through Jesus’ resurrection, God gave us hope for eternal life. God is with you at this very moment. He loves you, and He creates the good for you from all the right and wrong in your life when you genuinely believe in and obey Him. —Kim Dae-jung Former president of South Korea Only Christ could have conceived Christ. —Joseph Parker Stir up the fire of your faith! Christ is not a figure of the past. He is not a memory lost in history. He lives! As Paul says, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today—yes, and forever!’ —Josemaria Escriva No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. —William Penn
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Even though I have not become a member of any special religious group, I have decided to follow Jesus Christ with my whole heart. I find in Him the inner strength, the precepts and the lifestyle that can help me and all the people of Uganda to solve the problems we face individually and as a nation. It is one of the interesting facts about Jesus Christ that people in every nation of the world regardless of religion, whether one is a believer or a nonbeliever, consider Jesus the greatest authority on human relations in history. His views on that subject have transcended all religions and cultures. It is remarkable that the person of Jesus Christ is accepted by everyone—even when they are not attracted by institutional religion. —Yoweri Museveni Ugandan politician and statesman
I see in Lycurgus, Numa and Mohammed only legislators who, having the first rank in the state, have sought the best solution of the social problem
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but I see nothing there which reveals divinity...nothing announces them divine. On the contrary, there are numerous resemblances between them and myself, foibles and errors which ally them to me and to humanity. It is not so with Christ. Everything in Him astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Beside Him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself. His ideals and His sentiments, the truths which He announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things. His birth and the history of His life; the profundity of His doctrine, which grapples the mightiest difficulties, and which is, of those difficulties, the most admirable solution; His Gospel, His apparition, His empire, His march across the ages and the realms, is for me a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, which plunges me into a reverence which I cannot escape, a mystery which is there before my eyes, mystery which I cannot deny or explain. Here I see nothing human. The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me,
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everything remains grand—and of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not a man. There is a profound originality, which has created a series of maxims before unknown. Jesus borrowed nothing from our sciences. One can absolutely find nowhere, but in Him alone, the imitation or the example of His life. —Napoleon Bonaparte
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I know the brutality and the cruelties of war better than many people. Now I want to work for peace. But how can mankind achieve a lasting peace? True peace of heart, mind, and soul can only come through Jesus Christ. —Mitsuo Fuchida Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy
Buddha never claimed to be God. Moses never claimed to be Jehovah. Mohammed never claimed to be Allah. Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the true and living God. Buddha simply said, “I am a teacher
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in search of the truth.” Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” Confucius said, “I never claimed to be holy.” Jesus said, “Who convicts me of sin?” Mohammed said, “Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope.” Jesus said, “Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins." —Unknown Even Christ pleased not Himself. He was utterly consumed in the zeal of His Father’s house. As man He ever moved for God. As God He ever moved for man. —Geoffrey T. Bull Jesus painted no pictures. Yet some of the greatest paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci received their inspiration from Him. Jesus wrote no poetry; but Dante, Milton, and scores of the world’s greatest poets were inspired by Him. Jesus composed no music; but Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection in the symphonies and oratorios they composed in His praise. Every sphere of human greatness has been influenced by this humble carpenter of Nazareth! —Henry Ward Beecher
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There is something so pure and frank and noble about Him that to doubt His sincerity would be like doubting the brightness of the sun. —Charles Edward Jefferson How was it that, even in the common tasks of an ordinary life, Jesus drew the praise of heaven? At the core of His being, He only did those things which pleased the Father. In everything, He stayed true, heartbeat to heartbeat, with the Father’s desires. Jesus lived for God alone; God was enough for Him. Thus, even in its simplicity and moment-to-moment faithfulness, Christ’s life was an unending fragrance, a perfect offering of incomparable love to God. —Francis Frangipane Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander the Great, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of school, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the
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reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. —Philip Schaff This Jesus was as faithful to the law as I am and would hope to be. But I suspect that Jesus was more faithful to the law than I am, and I am an Orthodox Jew. —Pinchas Lapide The soul is exceedingly ravished when it first looks on the beauty of Christ. It is never weary of Him. —Jonathan Edwards
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No one [Jesus] ever deserved suffering less, yet received so much...no one has ever had a greater right to retaliate, but used it less...no one has ever
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borne so much injustice with so little vengeance. —John Piper Christian preacher and author If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Saviour. —Roy Lessin The light of heaven is the face of Jesus Christ; the joy of heaven is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ; the melody of heaven is the name of Jesus Christ. The theme of heaven is the work of Jesus Christ. The employment of heaven is the work of Jesus Christ. The fullness of heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ, himself. —Anonymous The highest act of love is the giving of the best gift,
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and, if necessary, at the greatest cost, to the least deserving. That’s what God did. At the loss of His Son’s life to the totally undeserving, God gave the best gift—the display of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. —John Piper You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm. —Robert Murray M’Cheyne The birth of Jesus — Savior, Messiah, Lord — translates all that is shabby, despairing, and dying into newness, joy, and life. It is a language that even we can hear. A four-year old boy asked, “What’s all the fuss about a baby when there’s more to the story?” He was right. If we only focus on the birth of Jesus as a sweet story we like remembering, then we miss out on what can happen for us tonight. The God who comes to be with us can take the shabby, hurting, dirty, abandoned, humiliating parts of ourselves and will make them and us new. —Jennie C. Olbrych
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Christ is like a river. A river is continually flowing, there are fresh supplies of water coming from the fountain-head continually so that man may live by it, and be supplied with water all his life. So Christ is an ever-flowing fountain; he is continually supplying his people, and the fountain is not spent. They who live upon Christ, may have fresh supplies from him to all eternity; they may have an increase of blessedness that is new, and new still, and which never will come to an end. —Jonathan Edwards Only look to Jesus. He died for you, died in your place, died under the frowns of heaven, that we might die under its smile. Regard neither unbelief nor doubt. Fear neither sin nor hell. Choose neither life nor death. All these are swallowed up in the immensity of Christ and are triumphed over in His cross. —John Fletcher No one switches on a flashlight in an area flooded by direct sunlight. We put on the light in order to dispel darkness. It is the darkness that makes the
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light necessary. God from eternity knew that men would choose darkness rather than light, and therefore He had to bring His light in Jesus Christ to shine in the midst of darkness. —Anonymous
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I worship Jesus Christ, whom we Christians consider to be the Prince of Peace. As a Jew, he taught us to cross religious boundaries, in service and in love. He repeatedly reached out and embraced Roman conquerors, other Gentiles, and even the more despised Samaritans. —Jimmy Carter 39th U.S. President
The way of the cross is the way of suffering. Christians are called to die, not kill, in order to show the world how they are loved by Christ. —John Piper And so the Word had breath, and wrought with human hands the creed of creeds in loveliness of
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perfect deeds, more strong than all poetic thought. —Alfred Tennyson The Lord ate from a common bowl, and asked the disciples to sit on the grass. He washed their feet, with a towel wrapped around His waist – He, who is the Lord of the universe! —Clement of Alexandria In the bonds of Death He lay Who for our offence was slain; But the Lord is risen to-day, Christ hath brought us life again, Wherefore let us all rejoice, Singing loud, with cheerful voice, Hallelujah! —Martin Luther Altruism is written in everlasting and resplendent character on the Cross of Christ, and it was at Calvary that the centre of life was shifted from selfishness to sacrifice. —John Weber
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Jesus Christ demands more complete allegiance than any dictator who ever lived. The difference is, He has a right to it. —Vance Havner Christian revivalist and author
It would be easier, I sometimes think, if God had given us a set of ideas to mull over and kick around and decide whether to accept or reject. He did not. He gave us Himself in the form of a Person. —Philip Yancey Does God really love us? I say look to the crucified Jesus. Look to the old rugged cross. By every thorn that punctured His brow. By every mark of the back lacerating scourge. By every hair of his beard plucked from his cheeks by cruel fingers. By every bruise which heavy fists made upon His head. God said, “I love you!” By all the spit that landed on his face. By every drop of sinless blood that fell to the ground. By every breath of pain which Jesus drew upon the
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cross. By every beat of His loving heart. God said, “I love you!” —Billy Lobbs Remember, the Savior offered His forgiveness to others before they wanted it...The Redeemer’s first word from the cross is a prayer not for those who are lovable, but for those who are thoroughly detestable. —Andrew W. Blackwood, Jr. The Cross! There, and there only (though the deist rave, and the atheist, if Earth bears so base a slave); There and there only, is the power to save. —William Cowper The devil has convinced so many people that they are worthless. Each of us needs to stop and remember the cross—at the cross we will discover our true value— for it is here that we discover the price God was willing to pay for us, the depth of His love, and how much we are worth to Him. —Roy Lessin
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The cross is the victory, the resurrection is the triumph...The resurrection is the public display of the victory, the triumph of the crucified one. —Eric Sauer
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He [Jesus] promised there will never be a dark night that does not end. And by dying for us, Jesus showed how far our love should be ready to go: all the way. —Ron Reagan radio talk show host and son of President Ronald Reagan
The marvel of heaven and earth, of time and eternity, is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This is the mystery that brings more glory to God than all creation. —C. H. Spurgeon The cross on which the Savior hung was not a tragic incident in the earth-life of the Son of God but
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rather the climax of a deliberate plan made in the councils of heaven before the creation of the present order of the cosmos. —Harold Rimmer
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JESUS, IN HIS OWN WORDS
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We have read much of what men have said about Christ. But what did Christ say about Himself? I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. I am one that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me. I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.
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I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this? I am the true Vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
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I am the living Bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread which I shall give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world...Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is the Bread which came down from heaven. I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, which is, and which was, and which is to
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come, the Almighty. Fear not; I am the First and the Last: Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
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JESUS CHRIST: THE WAY...
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Jesus Christ said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” In the early days after Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, the people we now call followers of Christ simply called their new faith “The Way.” The Way? Yes, the Way to joy, peace, eternal life, union with God, and a relationship with Jesus Christ Himself. Do you want to know The Way to all these things? Keep reading. Dear Reader Friend, you have just finished reading a book that represents compelling evidence that Jesus Christ... ...was born and lived upon planet Earth and set the greatest example for mankind...
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...that He died for our sins... ...that He rose again for our justification... ...and that He had the greatest impact upon men and women, boys and girls throughout all ages and around the world... My simple question is, do you know Him as your personal Saviour? If for some reason you do not, here is how you can know Him today: First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7: 20: “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…” Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to
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hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The Bible also says in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Fourth, accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself! The Bible states in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Fifth, accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jesus Christ, John 3:16).
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Sixth, with these facts in mind, please repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pray and ask Him to come into your heart and save you this very moment. The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9, 13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Seventh, if you are willing to trust Christ as your Saviour, please pray with me the following prayer: Heavenly Father, I realize that I am a sinner. For Jesus Christ’s sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life. Amen.
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WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU ENTER THROUGH THE DOOR
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Jesus Christ said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” If you entered the “door” by giving your heart and life to Jesus Christ by praying the prayer on the previous page, congratulations! Now, here are some things you need to do to jump-start your walk with Jesus Christ—the same Jesus that so many others have walked with before. Jesus Christ said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). I am convinced that there are many people who have entered through the “Door,” that is, they have been
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truly saved, but, sadly, no one ever sat down with them and told them correctly what they should do after they have entered through the “Door.” Getting saved is most important, but what you do after you are saved is very important as well. Following are seven things that you definitely need to do after you are saved: 1. Get Baptized. Matthew 28:19 says, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” It is very important that you obey the Lord and follow Him in Believers’ Baptism. Even if you were baptized at another time in your life, if you are just now truly getting saved, you still need to be baptized again because you were not saved the first time you were baptized. You see, we don’t get baptized to be saved; rather, we get baptized because we are saved. 2. Join a good church. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:
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and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Let’s face it: everything that says church on it is not necessarily a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. For there are many false churches and teachers in the world. Below are some marks of a good church: A. The pastor preaches from the Word of God—the Bible—and he strives to practice what he preaches. B. The church stands on the basics of the Christian faith. The basics of the Christian faith are: • The Bible is Inspired by God • The Deity of Jesus Christ • The Blood Atonement for Sin by Jesus Christ • Salvation by Faith in Jesus Christ • The Imminent Return of Jesus Christ C. An emphasis is placed on reaching out to others with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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D. The love of Jesus Christ is shown. These are just a few marks of a good church. Pray and follow the Lord’s leading. 3. Allow yourself to be trained. Matthew 28:20 says, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” This will mean that you will have to humble yourself and listen to your pastor and those he appoints to help you. You see, becoming a Christian is something totally new to you and there are many important things that you will have to learn from others who are trained and have the experience. 4. Pray daily. Luke 18:1 says, “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.” You will find that regular prayer unto God will be one of your greatest sources of strength, power and blessing. 5. Read your Bible daily. Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
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word of God.” As they say, “When you pray, you talk to God. When you read your Bible, God talks to you.” Do you want to live a vibrant, strong, useful and successful Christian life? Then you will want to read and meditate on your Bible daily. 6. Witness for Christ daily. Acts 1:8 says, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Jesus Christ commands us to witness for Him. One of the greatest joys you will ever have in this life is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with another person. A greater joy is to see them come to know your Saviour as their Saviour. So plant the seed everywhere you go and allow God to use you to “turn many from darkness to light.” 7. If you are willing to follow Jesus Christ as one of His disciples, pray with me the following prayer: Holy Father, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ please forgive and cleanse me of all sin. Create within me a pure heart and a right spirit. Please help
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me to do the things that I just read, and grant me your grace to be a Christian that will glorify your name. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen. Congratulations on entering through the “Door” of Eternal Life by believing in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour is the most important thing you will ever do. Now that you are saved, let’s live for the One who died for us. God bless you as you serve Him.
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NAMES
PEOPLE PICTURED ON THE FRONT AND BACK COVER OF THE
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Front Cover: In order from left to right, starting with the top row and going down. 1. Mahatma Ghandi 2. Billy Graham 3. Albert Einstein 4. Martin Luther King, Jr. 5. Henry Ward Beecher 6. Tony Evans 7. David Livingstone 8. Queen Elizabeth II 9. H.G. Wells
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10. Napoleon Bonaparte 11. Thomas Jefferson 12. Leonardo da Vinci 13. John Wesley 14. Daniel Webster 15. John R. Rice 16. John Bunyan 17. C.S. Lewis 18. T.D. Jakes 19. Charles Haddon Spurgeon 20. Nicky Cruz Back Cover: In order from top to bottom. 1. Isaac Watts 2. Ian Maclaren 3. Blaise Pascal 4. Charles Wesley 5. Sojourner Truth 6. Robert Louis Stevenson 7. John Newton
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